The York Region Catholic board is axing kindergarten altogether at an Aurora school going French immersion — but a local mom says the province promised full-day in all schools.

Charlene Sant-Wells's two kids, Kiersten, left, and Jake, will have to go to different schools next year because the York Catholic board has eliminated kindergarten in French immersion schools. She's started a petition opposing the move; saying all schools are required to offer full-day kindergarten next fall.

Not every Ontario elementary school will have full-day kindergarten this fall — some because of construction delays to make room for the signature Liberal program, but also because others have eliminated kindergarten all together.

Despite previous government statements and policy documents — and even legal opinions sought by boards — Education Minister Liz Sandals says the program only has to be accessible to all students, not necessarily available in all schools.

The education ministry says 3,600 of the province’s 4,000 elementary schools will offer full-day by this fall. Of the 400 that won’t, most are likely middle schools where full-day was never intended to go.

But not all: Aurora mom Charlene Sant-Wells was furious to find out her children’s school was getting rid of junior and senior kindergarten this fall, just as the all-day program is supposed to be fully implemented across the province.

In the York Catholic board, a committee decided to remove kindergarten entirely from St. Joseph’s elementary this September, because the school is moving to French immersion only and the board doesn’t offer that program in the early years. The board did not wish to offer an English kindergarten program at the school, either.

It says all future French-immersion schools won’t have kindergarten, and the Peel District School Board also has a school switching to French immersion-only that is axing kindergarten for the same reason.

This is yet another controversy in all-day learning for the province’s youngest students. Boards have been scrambling to implement the program in all their schools over a short period of time, with sometimes inadequate funding.

Some schools have faced major disruptions. Making room for all-day kindergarten has pushed some older students out to different schools and led to redrawn boundaries or even the addition of portables. The Toronto Catholic board voted to move an entire school to a new location.

Regarding full-day kindergarten, the Education Act states that: “every board shall, in every elementary school of the board in which instruction is given in some or all of the primary division, operate a full day junior kindergarten and kindergarten …”

Just last summer, the Toronto Catholic board sought a legal opinion on the matter and was told it had to offer it at each school.

But Sandals said she has only said full-day kindergarten would be accessible to all Ontario students, not available at every site.

As for government documents and press releases that state all elementaries will have it, “the intent … is that all elementary children will get the program,” she said. “It’s what I’m saying and what I’ve always said.”

Sant-Wells pointed out that the change will create big problems for families with more than one child.

“They are forcing families to separate siblings and manage multiple schools and multiple drop-offs and forcing students to be bussed out of local areas,” said Sant-Wells, who has started a petition demanding that kindergarten be reinstated, given the government’s promises.

Annie Kidder, of the research and advocacy group People for Education, said schools can add or eliminate grades as part of a program review, “and there’s a lot of that going on in terms of changing grades of schools.”

But that’s because boards have faced “serious bumps” ushering in full-day, she added.

“Even though full-day kindergarten is very important, it’s a huge planning problem for boards, especially growth boards — the ‘905’ boards,” she added.

“It has been really difficult for them to deal with. A lot of them are saying they don’t have the infrastructure in place, they don’t have the money to pay for it; it is an organizational nightmare.”

Sandals said some Ontario boards are congregating kindergarten students at a central location, returning them to their home school in Grade 1.

“Boards really come up with all sorts of models,” she said. It’s fine, “as long as they are offering a quality program, and every child has access to the program in an accessible way that makes sense,” she added.

Moving children out of their neighbourhood schools to other locations doesn’t affect the vision of full-day kindergarten providing an easier, “seamless” day for families, or the intent that schools become community hubs, she said. She added that there’s never been any guarantee that an elementary school will have kindergarten.

As for construction delays, schools that aren’t ready by the fall may put children in the gym for a few days until the full-day classrooms are ready or, for longer delays, look at moving them temporarily, Sandals added.

Meanwhile, the York Catholic board says it will reconsider the St. Joseph’s kindergarten decision at its Feb. 25 meeting.

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